A biased look at psychology in the world

October 20, 2009

Gunman Howard Unruh dies at 88

It has been six decades since Howard Unruh's shocking mass murder but surviving family members of his victims still remember the terror of that day on September 6, 1949 when Unruh's rampage claimed thirteen lives. Many of those family members expressed satisfaction on learning that the 88-year old Unruh died yesterday at a Trenton N.J. nursing home following a long illness. Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and confined to the New Jersey Hospital for the Insane (later the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital) after the rampage, Howard Unruh had been a model patient who lived for decades without incident.

Howard Unruh had been a returning veteran of World War Two who had become alienated in his civilian life in Camden, New Jersey. Deeply affected by his wartime experiences, he lived in an apartment building with his mother. Despite being a war hero, he remained unemployed and seemed to have little to do with his time except look at the medals and other war memorabilia decorating his bedroom walls and care for his considerable collection of firearms. He also maintained a target range that he set up in the basement of his apartment building which didn't prevent him from getting into trouble with his neighbours.The spectacle of a grown man being financially supported by his mother who worked at a local factory made him the target of considerable teasing as a "mama's boy". In his diaries, he kept careful note of every personal grievance (real or imagined). When the diaries were later examined, it was found that he had written the word "retal" (short for retaliate) next to the name of every neighbour whom he had thought deserving of special consideration.

On September 6, 1949, Howard came home from a local movie theatre to find that the new gate that he had built onto the front of the apartment building had been stolen. That was the apparent trigger that led to his rampage. After dressing up in his best suit and arming himself with a German luger and thirty-three rounds of ammunition, Unruh went hunting for those he felt had wronged him. In the twelve-minute rampage that followed, Howard shot at over twenty-six people, killing thirteen and wounding a number of others.Most of the victims were from his list but many others were apparently just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hearing the approaching sirens, he returned to his mother's apartment and prepared to make a final standoff. After being wounded, he was convinced to turn himself in. He was eventually charged with thirteen counts of murder and three counts of "atrocious assault and battery" According to the two psychiatrists who examined him before his trial, Unruh stated that "I'm no psycho. I'd have killed a thousand if I had bullets enough".

Although he was found mentally fit to stand trial, Unruh was sent to a psychiatric hospital to serve his life sentence. Other returning veterans had committed acts of violence following the end of the war but Howard Unruh certainly stood out as the first spree killer in U.S. history.

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I wonder where old Howie Unruh is about now. On
September 6, 1949, he walked down the streets of
Camden, New Jersey and shot 16 people, 13 of whom
died. It was considered the 1st of the long-gunman mass murders in America. It happened in
the 40's, in an era that is often called the age
of innocence. It was right after World War 11,
when America had that attitiude of "mom, pop, and
apple pie." It was back in the days when kids
respected their teachers and the police, and it
was long before the 50's gave us the "juvenile
delinquent" or the 60's gave us the hippies, the
demonstrations, and the protests. Yes, back in
the 40's is when America really started to go
mad. I think much of it was the result of World
War 11. It kind of put us on the map and ended
America's isolation. It also brought out the
worst in us. Howard Barton Unruh was born in
1921, served in the army in combat in World War 11, came home with PTSD, and became somewhat of
a social dropout. He stopped working after a
while, just hung around the house, where he lived
with his mother, would often walk down the street
with his trusty bible in his hand and the pants
of his suit tucked into his combat boots. He was
not exactly your all-American boy. He had always
been a loner and it is believed he had been stricken eary on in life with paranoid schizophrenia. His solitary existence and his
mental illnesses, combined with his neighbors
mocking his behavior (or so he perceived it), was
what triggered his mass murder on the early morning of September 6, 1949. He had a .38 luger
pistol, which he had taken from a dead German
soldier in World War 11, and he took it with lots
of extra bullets with him on that fateful morning. He had prepared a hit list of those that most annoyed him, and he got most of them,
as well as some bystanders, who were both in the
way and available. He went home, was surrounded
by the police, and finally surrenedered. He never went to trial, but rather was judged insane
and immediately incarcerated in the New Jersy
psychiatric system, in the maximum security wing,
where he slept in a cell. Miraculously, he spent
the next 60 years there, being unheard of by
most Americans. I often call him the best kept
secret in America. They say he just watched TV,
listened to the radio, played cards, read, ate,
and slept away those 60 years. Hardly anything
of substance is said about those years in the
mental hospitals, and I can't help but wonder why. He is said to have had a World War 11 visitor who came and saw him over a 16 year period, and the the visitor said he said he was
sorry about what he had done and he remembered the anniversary of the shooting every year. Anyway, old Howe died just recently - Ocbtober 19, 2009, and with Howie's passing went the "best
kept secret in America." You have to wonder what
really lurked in the mind of Howar Unruh over his
60 years in the nut house. Only old Howie knows
and he took that secret to the grave with him.
Oh, Howie, you're such a little rascal!!!!!!!!!!!